Delightful, but damned hard work!

On Saturday, as we continued up the Erewash, we discovered that the Long Eaton carnival parade was taking place that afternoon.  We couldn't decide whether to stop and watch it or not, so carried on towards our destination of Ilkeston so that on Sunday, Fathers Day, we could get the bus to Derby for the train to Birmingham to then get to my mum and dad's near Droitwich for Fathers Day on Sunday. 

If only we'd chosen to stop for a while to watch the parade ...

 'The Barge Inn' along the way - great name for a pub by the canal! 

Just before the next lock we were accosted by an extremely old and decrepit boat and it's equally attired owner asking if we had any jump leads as his battery was flat.  Well as the law of karma goes, what goes round comes round and as we'd been so kindly assisted last year when our starter battery was dead we tried our best to help - well Barry did, I just held the bow rope in place while they used all sorts of different leads and wires to try and mend his ailing boat but to no avail.  After about an hour the task was abandoned and we moved along - hope he finds a solution bless him.

 Old mill chimneys apparent around here

To get to Saturday's destination we had eight locks to work and each one was a challenge - but we had plenty of time so it wasn't a big issue.  We did stop just above Long Eaton Lock and watched the carnival procession - Barry hasn't seen an English carnival before and said he'd wondered why they were holding it in June as they have one in Gisborne in December - of course it's due to the reversal of seasons in each hemisphere!

 Towards the end of the procession - with military precision

We also found the most humongous ASDA - I so forget how overwhelmed I get when I'm in these superstores - it took ages to do a few days grocery shopping as I walked each aisle in awe of the vast ranges of anything you can think of.  It was wonderful and frightening at the same time - people who use these places frequently probably couldn't imagine having only a couple of choices of brands of each thing as we do in Gisborne; and realistically that's all you need!  However, having so much choice has its advantages as there's so many bargains to be had - we had a trolley full of food and stocked up our cupboards and fridge but spent less than ninety pounds - amazing!  But I couldn't do it every week it'd drive me crazy that there's so much 'stuff' to choose from.

    En route to the supermarket - possibly the Council Chambers?

The locks on this canal (of which there are more than one for every mile), are backbreaking!  They're all double locks with very rickety old gate paddles - even Barry had trouble opening some of them when he came to my rescue!  Less fit people would have no chance of negotiating them, no wonder few people come up this way.  But what a shame, because it truly is an adorable journey with some very friendly people along the way, and all admirably clean and tidy.

 Steering in gently trying not to open the other gate ...

Sandiacre Lock where a sign on the cottage says 'E.C.P. & D.A.' - Erewash Canal Preservation & something or other (not sure)

Northern Pride alone in the lock - not a chance of waiting for another boat to join us and share the load 

 This could easily be a scene from a bygone era ...

and again

  The early evening sunlight dapples the meadow with a golden glow, and the outskirts of Sandiacre in the background

Stanton Lock - with some young and very helpful gongoozlers

Right next to Gallows Lock - Gallows Inn - you wouldn't want to hang around too long here! 

We reached Ilkeston late in the evening and moored up close to the road bridge that would lead us to the bus stop on Sunday morning.  Unfortunately we missed the opportunity to fill up with water whilst in Sawley and hadn't appreciated that the only place you can get water on the Erewash canal is right at the summit in Langley Mill - so we were getting a little desperate by now - we still have water but we're not sure how much and the drinking water is running low.  How on earth have we managed to be on the canals for so long and not realised the importance of forward planning such necessities - obviously we've just become much too laid back!

Have you ever seen a flower like this?  Any idea what it's called?  Looks like a firework exploding!  Awesome

Happy Fathers Day

 

To all the Fathers out there. Yes! even the football fan fathers

The Erewash canal - a parallel universe within a parallel universe?

It's extremely difficult to judge what time it is in the mornings when you have no timetables to follow and the curtains are dark green velvet and almost 'blackout' any light.  Barry, bless him, mistakenly got up just after 0500hrs on Friday morning - he'd thought it was later but by the time he realised he was already wide awake, so off he went to look for photo opportunities (what else would you do at that time of day?).  Having been a shift worker for much of my nursing and midwifery career, interspersed with more civilised 9-5 posts, I relish any chance to stay in bed if I get it, so just rolled over and dragged myself from my slumber at a decidedly more decent time of around 0830hrs.

 

The light and peaceful mirrored waters at 5:30am, were just perfect for photography

Even had a touch of mist - Sandra still sound asleep on the right ...

  and a very obliging duck paddled by to add a little life to the serene scene

The Clock Warehouse where we ate Thursday night, with Shardlow lock on the left

Shardlow Lock and cottage

The Old Salt Warehouse next to the canal - now a tearoom

Lots of warehouses and working boats about

Stunning wild poppies

You have to look in all the unlikely places on a photo shoot ...

 

as often the less obvious make great shots

  Awesome reflections

 

An abundance of public houses adjacent to the canal

 Black and white gives another perspective

A variety of architecture

Barry wanted to chat to the very helpful young man who works at the Marine Engineers at Shardlow (we'd purchased a back hatch cover from him last year that he'd customised for us at a very reasonable cost) to ask his advice about the rusty parts in the storage seats in the bow.  Reassuringly and much to my relief, he stated that it wasn't half as bad as feared, and suggested Barry uses his grinder to take off the surface rust and put a few coats of 'Danboline' paint on.  So at some stage on our journeys there's going to be some serious work going on.

Dobson's Marine at Shardlow Wharf - very helpful and knowledgeable staff

Another view of 'The Clock Warehouse' in the sunlight

As we now didn't have to stay for any length of time at Shardlow, we left and moved up to Sawley so I could use their launderette.  So far managing the washing without a machine on board hasn't been too much of a hassle!  We devoured a tasty fish 'n chips lunch in their cafe, then, on returning to the boat, poor Barry had a rare afternoon nap - he was worn out after his early start!

An imposing sight - Ratcliffe Power Station dominates the skyline

So it was around 1800hrs when we negotiated the electronically operated Sawley Locks and emerged onto the Trent, heading for the meeting with the river Soar and then the sharp left turn into Trent Lock, to enter the infrequently navigated Erewash canal.  We thought just being on the canals was like going back to a time when life was taken at a much slower pace, but within half an hour of commencing our experience of this waterway were captivated by the atmosphere of bygone days. 

  In Trent Lock at the commencement of the Erewash Canal - the towers continue emitting their steam ...

 and a closer shot of their smouldering magnificence

There were boats moored most of the way for the first mile so our short journey took longer than usual at about 1 mile an hour!  Not only narrowboats, but all shapes and sizes of extraordinary houseboats too ...

Some interesting and colourful old canal boats

 

Incredible house boats not far from Trent Lock

Moored boats as far as the eye can see

Even boats moored on a little side arm

  

The 11 3/4 mile long Erewash canal was completed in less than a year in 1779 to carry coal from the pits in Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire to the towns of the East Midlands.  Even though it's just a short canal, there's 15 locks to negotiate from one end to the other, taking the traveller up 109 feet to Langley Mill!

We moored just after 1900hrs at a pub called The Royal Oak at Long Eaton, ate some tea and caught the last minutes of the first half and second half of the England/Algeria match which just reiterated what I've previously said about football - so blooming frustrating, a nil/nil draw, give us rugby union any day!

Poppy's from the parallel universe

Loving living the laid-back lazy life

We had a comment recently on the blog from someone called Neil who said that what comes across in the blog is our 'love of life'.  Well Neil, you're absolutely correct.  I once bought a card that I have up at home in NZ that says 'don't save anything for a special occasion; being alive IS the special occasion'.  I love that sentiment and we do try and aspire to that each day.

On Thursday, we woke up (shockingly late on my part!!) to an idyllic mooring spot in the countryside, with just the sounds of the birds singing on one of those rare, blue-skied, sunny English days that you want to last forever.  After a lazy breakfast we ventured out for a walk to find an old railway line that was nearby according to the Nicholson's guide.

Just along the towpath was another boat moored and I'd heard a sound similar to someone sanding something, but when we passed by we found a most unusual sight - a couple with a knitting machine balanced precariously on an old workbench, making woollen socks!  They informed us that they live aboard and produce around 200 pairs a year that they sell, then in the winter months they travel the canals - this of course makes their journeys limited due to winter stoppages.  It's quite incredible and inspirational what lengths some people go to to live on their boats all year round; we've seen a variety of methods of earning a small income - from the cheese boat to a book barge, an assortment of canal-ware sellers, and recently I saw a boat with a young couple aboard that were advertising fill-ups of 'Ecover', an environmentally friendly washing up liquid and clothes washing solution (and possibly other products!).

Hard at work knitting socks in the sunshine - apparently destined for battle re-enactments!

We found the previous railway line which led us over the river Trent and eventually ends up in Ashby - on a national cycle route.  Coincidentally, Andrew Denny recently posted a blog about the National Bike 'week' (it's actually 10 days!) which takes place across the country from Saturday until Monday 27 June. The railway line used to take people from Derby to Ashby, and was opened in 1867 and closed for some reason in 1982 - it's now a very pleasant place to stroll.

The line runs across the river Trent, teaming with fish                  

A surprising number of cyclists rode past while we were walking

  Lots of swans on the river - this one was making the most of the breeze, using her wings as sails

It was such a fabulous day that after our outing we had lunch sitting on the towpath, followed by a bit of a snooze in the sun (well I lazily did, even after my lie-in!), reluctant to move on to our planned stop at Shardlow that evening as we'd planned to meet up with a friend there once again.  We did, however, manage to venture on mid-afternoon, arriving in Shardlow just before 6pm.  Along the way we met a family from Wanaka, in the South Island of New Zealand who are holidaying on the canals for a week, and also Michaela had a little wander around our boat and rang the bell - she'd previously been on a narrowboat holiday with her family to Llangollen so was in awe of boats bless her.

Sharing the locks with two couples on a hire boat, and Michaela visits Northern Pride

Shardlow Lock

Approaching the 'port' of Shardlow on a balmy summer's evening

Shardlow is reported to be one of the most interesting inland ports on the inland waterways network so of course Barry discovered a few photo opportunities! 

A mix of permanent moorings outside the Shardlow Heritage Centre - only open weekends and bank holidays from 1200 - 1700 unfortunately

 

We've been forwarded a news-link about some crazy bloke who put a bet on in the 87th minute of the Slovakia/New Zealand match for Slovakia to win - he lost £20,000 and would've only won about £400 anyway - some people really do have more money than sense!  We're also pretty stoked that New Zealand did so well but the converse was true for our neighbours across the ditch - but we won't get too cocky yet!  Getting into the spirit of World Cup fever we'll probably try to find somewhere to watch the next England game on Friday night.

In the meantime, we met up with Tony, a NZ midwife colleague's dad, and had a few drinks and a meal at The Clock Warehouse - this used to be an 18th Century Mill and was restored in 1979.  The arch in the photo is where the boats used to enter to unload and is now a children's play area inside.

Sandra and Tony outside 'The Clock Warehouse'

 Dazzling daisies are the flowers of the day